Just found this one......an original holder for the MG34 for the Truppenfahhrad. Very nice Piece, WaA marked. Condition as left behind from the Wehrmacht. No repaint or else. Only this Piece found. Hope you like it.

Hi guys.
I came across this thread, when doing research on the Truppenfahrrad.
Last year I got a tip about 2 possible Truppenfahrräder, that were standing in a old outhouse in a abandoned farm a couple of kilometers from where I live. There has not been living anyone in this farm since 1979.
The farm is located in a mountain valley, about one kilometer from the nearest road. There is no road going to this farm, only a narrov walkway/path trough difficult and steep terrain wich goes around a small lake.
Anyway, I did a bit of research and learned that the owner of this farm is an uncle of a childhood friend of mine. This uncle is using this farm as a cabin, and maintain most of the buildings. The farm has been in his family since it was built sometime in the 1800's.
I got in contact with the owner, and told him how I got a tip from a friend that had seen these bicycles in the outhouse. (This outhouse is one of the buildings that is not maintained, and is about to collapse) The owner told me about his plans to tear down this outhouse, as the roof is about to come down and the outhouse is unstable and a security risk. Well long story short, he invited me to the farm for coffee and gave me a tour around the farm.
He told me that if these bicycles was something that I was interested in, I can have them free of charge, if I am able to get them out of there and transport them to the road. I went in to the outhouse and had a look at the bicycles. I was immediately convinced that these two bicycles was infact original Wehrmacht truppenfahrräder. However they were in a poor state of decay and negligent. The owner told me that these bicycles had been standing in this outhouse as long as he could remember. He told me that he remember them standing there from when he was a kid in the 1950's.
Here is what I found in the outhouse:

So I brought the bicycles home and cleaned them a little bit. I learned that one of the bicykles is a "Achilles" from 1940 and the other one is a "Patria WKC" from 1942.
Here is the Patria WKC:

And here is the Achilles:

But the curious thing about this Achilles bicycle, is that it is only marked with "40" for 1940 undernieth the seat. And it has also a WaA stamp there.

I have used the winter scavenging the internet for sources of information and searching for original parts to rebuild the bicycles. I have found a lot of original parts and information. However, much of the information that has been written by collectors post war is somewhat faulty and contains errors. I have learned that original Truppenfahrräder are rare, and that about 9 out of 10 bicycles that are said to be wehrmacht bicycles - are nothing more than humped up civillian bicycles.
So for recources of knowledge I have mostly used the original wartime manuals, and spent countless hours studying original wartime photographs of bicycles in use by the Wehrmacht.
I set out on a mission to rebuild and restore these bicycles. First thing I needed to get, was original wheels for the Achilles. I found a pair of original reinforced Wehrmacht rims at velo-classic.de. They also provided me with spokes and nuts. I found WH spec wheelhubs from another source.

I bought original Semperit beaded edge tires from the 1930's, from a vintage bicycle collector in Austria.

I even found a original ww2 advertizing poster for Semperit bicycle tires from the war:

I found original, restoreable relic condition parts for mounting the MG34 on one of the bicycles:

So I set out on a mission, to restore and fit the bicycles with the equipment for a MG34 team:

So during this spring, the bicycles has been taken apart to the smallest nut and screw. All parts has been sandblasted, repainted and put together again. Missing parts has been replaced and original wehrmacht parts are used to rebuild everything. I took these pictures last month. For the interested I am posting a lot of detailed pictures:

Original Achilles emblem. I bought it from a collector of bicycle emblems in Bulgaria.

The markings on the rear fenders have been copied from original pictures of Truppenfahrräder, taken here in norway in 1940.
The photographs presented here are property of Tore Greiner Eggan www.krigsbilder.net and are posted with permission from the owner.
The pictures are from a photoalbum originally belonging to a solider in a Fahrrad Aufklärung schwadrone of Panzerjäger Abteilung 234, of the 163 Infanterie Division.
Notice the MG34 on the bicycle in the lower right corner of the first photo here:

I hope you like the pictures.
Here are some links to external recources that I have found to be very helpful when I was searching for original parts and knowledge that I needed to restore these bicycles: